Through the Generations (Themed Studio Photography )

Task Three: I am to produce a series of four images that relate to one of the following themes - escape, love, insecurity, found, lost, time or place. The images can be in any key and in any subject.

My final images must be in the form of four prints that work together as a series of images and should be a minimum of 6x9in

After plenty of research and thought, I have decided to go with the theme TIME for my series of images.

I am to take a series of photos that will represent time through the generations. I will be photographing my dear Nan, Mum, myself and my daughter, each holding an antique style frame.

I will then  post edit in photoshop, placing each image inside the frame that each subject is holding.
Get it?????

The set up to start with will be a high key light set up. The rest is pretty simple. Prop wise, all I need is a stool and the antique photo frame which my lovely friend Julie is supplying me with.
I am planning for us all to wear similar coloured outfits so the images all blend nicely. Either that or bold solid prime colours.

A colleague of mine Karl found an image similar to what I am hoping to achieve, I have attached said image below, I hope this gives you a better idea.
I am reversing the orderin what the images are in below as I feel photographs capture the past, so it makes sense for Nan to be the first image, finishing off with the newest member of female generation in the main final image. It will also make it easier for us to carry on the tradition. The new generation (Sarah my daughter) holding the past generations, me, mum and last but not least my Nan x

Watch this space, the shoot is on Thursday.......................

The finished product.

The photoshoot went well. My daughter Sarah helped me set up the studio which was located in St. Helens for a high key portrait set up something like this

Once the set was ready I met my mum and Nan and took them back up to the studio and briefed them on what would be happening during the photoshoot and how I was to achieve the final image. 

The shoot went smoothly, I think this was down to my smart plan. As normal I set my camera to full manual and on ISO 100, f/8 and ss 1/125. I immediately adjusted the aperture to a larger number as the image was quite dark but I knew that if I increased the power on the lighting it would blow the subject out as well as the background. I ended up with f/4.

Sarah was first, then my mum. My mum then captured the image of me. Last but not least was my dear nan, I had to make a few adjustments to the key light as the power was too high for her complexion and fair hair and washed her right out. I took it to f/9 from f/7.

Done! That was fun :o) Now to photoshop to manipulate the images to work together to create the final image similar to the one above.

Post editing

I opened up all my images in camera raw and made a slight adjustment to the curves on each image. I then converted all of the chosen images to JPEG. I then opened them in Photoshop CS 6 and began my editing.

I cropped the image to a 8 x 10 size. Did a few touch ups with the healing tool and used my eye define preset action(which is mainly dodge & burn). I then selected the area within the frame being held by subject using the polygonal Lasso tool, I then removed the background using the background eraser and finished by deselecting the area. I then added a new layer which the added image would sit on. Opening the other image of me, which was edited and ready to go I dragged across to the main image and place between the main layer and background layer, free transforming until it was in the correct position.(always remember to click on the link tab to maintain aspect ratio or it will make image look distorted.)

Quite simple really, I repeated this process for all images, ensuring that the top layer was always the top image. So Sarah, then me, then mum and finally Nan.

To finish off I merged layers, then added an unsharpen mask then flattened the full image.

Below are the series of images:

I think the images work in relation to my subject which is time. It represents time by demonstrating the mothers throughout my families generations. The first image being all the generations in relation to me, from youngest gen to oldest gen. The second image of course is me holding my past generations, the third image is my mum Julie holding her past generation, and last but not least the fourth image is my dear Nanny Eileen, the start of my living generation :0)

I am planning on doing this shoot again. We had lots of fun and enjoyed being together all at once ( we had a lovely lunch together afterwards). The main reason for wanting to repeat is so I can use a larger frame as I feel it wasn't quite big enough and my Nan seemed to get lost in the final image of us all, however the results look more than satisfactory on a large print such as a 8 x 10"

Leanne x

All in all a great family photography session!

Studio Product Photography-Task Two

Task Two: Product photography. Several shots of products that are related to me and about who I am. They can be shot in either low key or high key or both. They have to reflect a particular aspect of my own persona. The final images have to be produced as jpeg for publication on the internet.

After days of racking my brain with an endless amount of ideas for what products to use to represent my persona I sent a text to my nearest and dearest family asking what the first thing/product came to mind when thinking of me.

My mum said butterfly, I flutter around and never land in one spot for too long, I even have a butterfly tattoo at the base of my back to represent this. So...the first product was chosen.

The second text through was from my dear brother. A lighthouse he said, his reason was this....I stand out tall and bright and have always been there for him and helped him out of rough waters. I love my bro :)
So the second product was chosen!

I then trawled through the internet and shops looking for the right type of butterfly and lighthouse. I wanted a realistic kinda butterfly, preferably in one of my favourite colours which are blue, purple and green. I eventually found one on the Ebay site for a bargain £1.50!

For my lighthouse I wanted it to have the standard features of tall and white with stripes and the little details like the platform around the light and a little door etc etc.
I eventually found one in Matalan which was a lovely blue and white instead of the typical red and white.

I decided to shot both images in a nice bright high key. I made this decision as I thought if I wanted to superimpose them onto other backgrounds it would be easier to select images with a blown out background.  I am not a moody dark person either so I thought a bright and cheerful high high would be better to represent my persona rather than a moody low key.

So my set up kinda looked like this for both product shoots.

Please bare in mind that the backdrop is actually a product scoop.

At first I found my images were not displaying a perfect blown out background and instead had shadows created from the softbox etc, I tried to counteract this with a reflector but is was still proving to be difficult. In the end I had to cut out the lights in the studio and voila, problem solved, although my fellow students were left sitting in the darkness!

I attached my butterfly with clear fishing wire to allow it to dangle in the air. My trusty friend/fellow student Ste helped out.

Below is one of my selected butterfly images SOOAC.

I automatically saved this for web at around 40k, please see belows notes for more details.
Note the background is more blown out on the top right? On this particualr image I had no reflector to the left of the butterfly thus creating a slight fall off.

How to save an image in JPEG for Internet publication

1. Choose File > Save for web...
2. Since it's a photograph, choose JPEG.
3. You can check the option Progressive if you like, it's only difference is how the loading will look like. Progressive images first appear blurry, and then become clearer as the image loads. Non-progressive images load line-by-line.
4. First choose quality level, High if the image will be visible, Medium or Low if it's meant as a background.
5. To have more control over the quality, use the slider or enter number in the field Quality
6. Look at the file size and estimated loading time displayed in the lower-left corner while adjusting settings. At the same time, look at the image to decide on what quality looks good enough.
7. If it's a background, make sure file size is under 5KB, up to 2KB would be better. (YOU ALTER THE KB BY ADJUSTING THE PIXELS, THE KB IS ON THE BOTTOM LEFT OF IMAGE)
8. If the image is a layout header, up to 40KB is acceptable.
9. If it's an image to be displayed on the page, 20-30KB is reasonable, depending on dimensions.
10. Artworks may be saved in better quality, since people who will look at them already expect to see large images.
11. Once you have found the perfect balance between quality and compression, click the button Save

Ok, so I was a little bored one evening and decided to experiment with photoshop. I wanted to place my butterfly on another background. I found an image of frangipanis....my favourite flowers which are native to my old home Australia and thought this would be perfect. Me, the butterfly sat on a branch full of yummy smelling frangipanis! Below is my final edit:

I found the background image online, it was taken by an amateur photographer in Queensland going by the name sped kid. Beautiful isn't it?

OK, so how did I achieve this? It was very simple. I opened both my background image and the butterfly image. I played around with the curves to create similar tones as the ones on the background image. Once I was happy with this I used the quick selection tool (W) and selected all of the butterfly. Once selected I refined the edge, with only a slight adjustment to the contrast and also selected the smart radius and decontaminate colours with the output selection set to New Layer.
I then dragged the new layer over to the background image (just drag and hover over the tab) I then did a Free Transform on the butterfly (CTL + T) and right clicked on my mouse to bring up a more indepth selection. I chose the persective. Messed around until it looked comfortable and confirmed by OK.
I wanted the butterfly to merge into the background more to add some depth so using the same technique I selected part of the frangipani and created a new layer with a petal on. Dragging that layer above the butterfly then allowed the petal to overlap the butterfly rather than the other way around.

 To finish off I added a photo filter layer. I selected my own colour filter by using the colour drop tool and clicking on the yellow of the flowers. I adjusted the density until I was happy then used the above saving method to ensure it was saved for web publication



Now onto my product number 2, the lighthouse:

I bought this dear little lighthouse from a department store locally. I loved the colours, much softer than the typical red and white lighthouses you so often see.
I took plenty of shots vertically, horizontally and birds eye but decided and this tilted version. Not sure why, I liked it at the time but looking back at it now I don't particularly like it. I just want to straighten it haha, ah well. What I do like it that it is clear and precise. It stands alone, strong and tall , the tilt gives it a bit of a twist.

I used the clone stamp tool to extend the background on the top left where the product scoop ended.
For the warm vintage colour I created a fill layer of a peachy colour as an overlay then a contrast adjustment layer to add depth to the little windows and highlight the reflection on the bottom left. I adjusted the opacity of this layer so the contrast wasn't too harsh. Once happy I followed the above procedure to ensure that the image was in the correct size and format for the web. Whilst doing so I recorded and saved the procedure as an action to make it easier in the future.

SOOAC, note the glare on the bottom
 right I mentioned earlier, although it has helped
catch the reflection 

Edited in photoshop, I used the clone stamp selection tool
 for the backdrop and a blend layer decreasing the opacity
on one and increasing on a pass through layer.
I like the way it creates a vintage feel 

During editing this post I decided to add another product to represent my persona. My perfume.
Watch this space........................

The highs and lows of studio key lighting and an inbetween!

We were given a new assignment from Bill today, it consists of three studio photography related tasks.

Task One: Three head shot portraits, HIGH KEY, MID KEY and LOW KEY. These portraits must be studio based and reflect the models persona.My final three images must be lab printed and no smaller than 6x9in

Task Two: Product photography. Several shots of products that are related to me and about who I am. They can be shot in either low key or high key or both. They have to reflect a particular aspect of my own persona. The final images have to be produced as jpeg for publication on the internet.

Task Three: I am to produce a series of four images that relate to one of the following themes- escape, love, insecurity, found, lost, time or place. The images can be in any key and in any subject.My final images must be in the form of four prints that work together as a series of images and should be a minimum of 6x9in

Task One

I completed this task in one day. The morning before, I devised a plan of what I would like to shoot for each image and what lighting and prop set up would be required.
My model was my daughter Sarah, we booked the studio for one hour and had all images complete within that time. I then did a few tweeks on the images and printed off as required.I have gone into more detail on how I achieved the finished images below:

HIGH KEY

High key is bright, vibrant and sharp so in this image I wanted to capture Sarahs fun cheeky side. I used a few props to help her relax and have some fun and she particularly enjoy trying to blow bubbles with the bubble gum. 

The two small softboxes were attached to the strobe lights on 1/2 power. As a fill light I used a large soft-box attached to a bowen 750. The main light source was a bowen 1100 with a beauty dish attached.

My camera was on 1/90 shutter speed, ISO 125, F16, focal length 75mm.

To finish off I opened in PS cs6 and added a black and white adjustment layer and unsharpen mask @50%

The composition of this image is almost central and full frame with just a slight area of negative space surrounding her. I cropped the image to a full head-shot to enhance the silly props and to allow the viewers to focus on Sarahs eyes which clearly sparkle with fun!!

 LOW KEY

 For the low key I wanted to bring across a dark mood. The set up was basic. With a black backdrop I positioned Sarah close to me and far away from the backdrop in order to create a decent falloff. 

With just one light, the bowen 1100 and a snoot I positioned it above her pointing down. To the left was a white reflector board to bounce a little light to ensure that side of her face wasn't in total darkness. My camera settings were fully manual with a 1/90 shutter speed, ISO 125, f.16

The only editing I did on this image was a crop and I used a tear brush to enhance Sarahs tears. I left the negative space at the top of the image to enhance Sarahs loneliness and isolation and the angle of the camera looking down on her also enhances this.

MID KEY

For the Mid Key image I wanted to portray Sarahs imaginative/romantic side. I had my assistant drop some feathers (left over prop) whilst Sarah was holding a bunch of spring flowers. To create the flat lighting I had two medium soft boxes attached to the flash lights, sat on tripods on wither side of Sarah at shoulder height. A white backdrop was used with Sarah positioned about three foot away. My camera settings were manual with a 1/90 shutter speed, ISO 125 and aperture set @ f16.

I cropped in photoshop and duplicated a few of the feathers to make it more symetrical . I purposely made this image bottom heavy with looking space at the top where the feathers are falling from and Sarah is looking. Overall I think the finished result is exactly what I was looking for. Calm, romantic and imaginative.

Conclusion

Overall, I think I completed this task with ease. I think it helped to plan the shoot beforehand with themes, poses and props, that way my mind was clear and I knew what I had to do to achieve the moods I wanted to portray with each KEY.

HIGH KEY = FUN. BRIGHT. SASSY. MODERN

LOW KEY = SAD. MOODY. ALONE

MID KEY = IMAGINATIVE, ROMANTIC. CALM

I would love your feedback so feel free to comment 

Lea x

NB: see next post for task two

Photoshop Tutorials High Pass Filter

Today we had to create several effects on sample images supplied by Ste our photoshop tutor.

The first one is HIGH PASS.

You could easily confuse this as sharpening the chosen image but in action, it actually does the opposite. Below is a step by step tutorial.

Below are the before and afters:

Before 

After

Step One:

Start by pressing Command J or for PC it would me CTRL-J to duplicate background layer

Step Two: Change the blend mode of this duplicate layer to overlay . Press Command-I to invert the layer. This can look at bit scary

Step Three:

Under filter menu, go to Other and choose High Pass. When the filter dialog appears, enter 10 pixels, cick OK. This part makes the image real blurry but dont panic

Step Four:

To limit the blurry effect I ill now add the Gaussian Blur. Go to FILTER menu and under blur select the Gaussian. Drag the radius to were desired. I chose 2 pixel. The skin starts to look smoother now.

Step Five:

Now because the above step has made the entire image blurred we need to isolate it to just the skin.

Press and hold the Option Key (ALT) and click on the Add Layer Mask to hide the textured layer behind a black mask.

Step Six

Select the brush tool, choose a medium sized soft brush with the opacity set to 100%. Ensure the foreground is set to white and then paint over the skin areas, revealing a softened skin texture in those areas.If the texture seems to be to OTT then you can reduce the opacity until it looks pleasant to the eye. Ensure that you have selected the correct filter layer not the background.

To finish off flatten image and save.

Studio Lighting Examples

Today we were shown examples of images with various kinds of studio lighting. We had to assess the image and draw our own studio lighting set up which we thought the photographer used to create the affect.

Below are the images and my original diagram: 

1

2

 3

 4

5

6

I was then shown the actual studio set up, Ive labelled them the same number as the numbered images they were used on.

                                                                                  1

Ok, so I was pretty close, except my app I used didnt have a beauty dish so I improvised!

2

Again, kinda close but had to improvise with a small soft box and a black reflector as on my stdio set up I had no flash accessories apart from a barn door. Not sure if mine would work?? Will have to try it out in the studio

3

Correct!

4

Close!

5

Bang on, yay! 

6

Again, perfect! I'm learning.

Conclusion:

So, I still have a lot to learn regarding studio lighting and techniques and I think  a lot of my learning can be done with experimentation as we dont always have access to ALL the equipment used in the above results. I have learnt that I can produce the same effect using other accessories too!

Watch this space for some sample of my own work as examples of the above set ups 

Lea x 

Characteristics of Studio Photography

Our tutor asked us to create a slideshow to present to the class to demonstrate our knowledge of the characteristics of studio photography.
I was placed with fellow students Fanni and Jonathon.

Due to the short amount of time we had (due to the three of us being absent) I suggested we all have particular areas to focus on. I had Fashion & Beauty, Fanni had Product with various artists and Jon had People with artist Eric Kellerman as his example. Each of us had to explain the client requirement or creative intent and also how the images we chose as examples were done ie. lighting, studio setup, composition etc etc

I have added a link to our prezzi, unfortunately the last part is missing at present as Fanni did a separate slide for her subjects and the link does not appear to be working and I am still waiting for the correct link. I will update as soon as she provides me with said link
Charateristics of Studio Photography

Lea x

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Product Photography Low Key

This week we have been experimenting with Low key product photography.

Product photography is an extension of commercial photography which is about accurately but attractively representing a product. The principal application of product photography is in product catalogues and brochures, with a proportion of product images also being used in advertising.
The challenges of product photography are generally:

• To represent the product without distortion
• To represent the product in good lighting, with soft shadows and no identifiable reflections
• To photograph a range of products rapidly, one at a time, so that the shadows and light are consistent



Scoop

The main areas that product photgraphy are taken in are in a tent or on a scoop, with the necessary lighting to create the required effect.

Tent

These are generally used for HIGH KEY product photography whuch will be a featured post in the next week or so.

Today we are discussing LOW KEY and below are some examples of the kind of set up you need to achieve this technique.

Below was our set up:

TBC 

Studio lights and modifiers

I will be explaining to you in this post why and how to use light modifiers. I will also be going into detail about what kids of light modifiers are available out there to use in indoor/studio photography.

So to start off with, the light I will be referring to is a Bowen Gemini 500 compact flash monolight.

A monolight has all the settings and adjustments on the unit themselves. This makes them very portable but can lack in power.

A head light consists of a head light and power pack which are attached via a cable. They can be mains or battery operated.
Having all the head lights attached to the power pack can make it easier to afjust the flash heads as this can be done in one go rather than individually changing the settings of the monlights. That said, in most studio photography each flash head tends to be on a different output to aquire the desired effect.

I think head lights would be more useful for outdoor photography when available light is not enough and needs to be powerful enough to overcome the sun.. Mono loghts are ideal for indoor studio photography as they take up less space, more versatile and provide enough power for the indor studio lighting techniques.

IMPORTANT: NEVER change a light modifier when the light is turned on. You could easily break the tube and get a nasty electric shock.

HEAD ACCESORIES:

Reflector modifier:

Most lights come with a standard reflector, if possible, a zoom reflector is ideal as it enables you to control the light without having to swap and change. A wider reflector setting gives a larger softer pool of light whereas a narrow reflectors gives a small harsh direct pool of light. 







Now once you have your reflector you can attach other modifiers onto this such as:


Barn door modifier 

Theses often come in kits like this:

This kit consists of the Barn door which allows you to direct the light onto different parts of your subject. You can create narrow strips of light, wide or when attaching a grid ( like the one attached) you can create a more harsh direct light. The honeycomb on the grid prevents the light from spilling.So in turn, the small the honeycomg, the tighter the light.
The gels clips over similar to a GOBO (see further down)
to create erm.....colour.


Snoot Modifier

A snoot attaches to the light head and creates a diect intense channel of ligh on the subject, obviously the closer to the subject it is, the more direct the light is, whilst moving away creates a larger but still direct area of light.








The next modifier is an Umbrella

One of the most commen of modifiers are the umbrellas.

Reflecting umbrellas produce a diffused and soft light due to the larger size of the reflecting surface. They are attached so  that the strobe light is actually facing away from the subject or model. Light flies from the strobe head hitting the inside of the umbrella and then bounces back towards the subject.
There are silver-lined, white, and gold tinted umbrellas. Silver-lined umbrellas are the most efficient and can focus light more narrowly than the other types. White umbrellas offer a wider spread of reflected light, and gold umbrellas produce a warm tone.







A Soft box is a type of photographic lighting device,
one of a number of photographic soft light devices. wiki

Softboxes come in a wide range of shapes and sizes in order to produce the desired affect. They can be packed flat and almost all have an metal adapter called a speedring to enable it to be attached to most flash head units.

A softbox square diffuses the light in a soft but direct angle.
A softbox Octa, sometimes known as a octabox diffuses and directs the light with a much softer edge with more wrap round light.
A strip light is ideal for full length portraits as they direct and diffuse light across that full length. They are useful for placing on the groundangled upright to highlight texture in surfaces.

In regards to  beauty portraits, the octabox or a flash ring would be my favourite. The catch lights are far more attractive.


Last but not least are the light grips and stands:

These are used to support your light sourse, modifiers and even back drops.
There are different stands available. The more heavy duty one is called a C stand, which could be used outdoors (in windy conditions)  or for heavier objects to be held like heavyduty backgrounds.
They are also stronger and more sturdier to use with a boom arm.
A boom arm is an extension to the light stand that allows the light/modifier to almost float in the air. To be positioned overhead.
 

 

 

I hope this post has been informative and gives you a better idea as to what flash lights and their modifiers can do for you in regards to studio lighting.

Throughout my blog you will come across various examples of these modifiers and example images of what they can do!

 

Lea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

High Speed Photography

High speed photography is a technique used to capture moving objects with a very fast shutter speed and/or flash.

Equipment generally needed is:

• A camera- SLR would be idea and also one that can produce long exposures and manual focusing.
• A flash unit - a flash that can be adjusted to different power values would be ideal, a speedlight flash is perfect for beginners. The flash is needed to freeze the motion of the said object
• Tripod - To eliminate camera shake when holding the camera, A remote trigger would be useful too, again to eliminate camera shake when pressing the shutter button.
• Objects.......camera, fruit, veg etcetc

A DARK ROOM is essential as this allows you to set your camera up at a long exposure (around 8secs). The flash will control the exposure time. This is because, with basic equipment alone, the cameras shutter is not quick enough to capture the moving object. Flash is quicker so using this method will allow the camera to capture the object when the flash exposes the said object. 

Another point to bare in mind is that the lower powered the flash unit is the faster the burst duration. So for example, to create an exposure time of less that 1/16000 of a second you would need to lower your flash to 1/16

Now the next point to take into account is HOW TO TRIGGER THE FLASH. This can be done a number of ways. There are triggers that set off by sound, which would've been perfect for our balloon popping experiment (see further down in post). We just relied on good old faithful eyes and ears and reflexes!

We had three stations set up for our high speed photography...

For the Balloon Popping set up we had a backdrop stand set up with a length of fishing wire (for transparency) tied to the centre. The filled water balloon would then dangle from this over a waste bin (which should catch the excess water when popped). We had a stick with a pin taped to the end to pop the balloon.
The camera was on manual setting of a 2 second timer, f/8, ISO 100, 10 second shutter speed. The camera was then attached to a tripod and then lined up and manually focused on the dangled balloon. We also had a second camera on AUTO settings to be the flash.
There were three of us in the group, Julie, Fanni and I. I hit the shutter, after the timer we counted down from three, on one, Julie triggered the flash on the other camera whilst simultaneously Fanni popped the balloon with the stick.

Now this required PERFECT timing and took quite a few attempts to get it just right. Here is our best shot! A few fun ones thrown in for good measure too!

 

 

For the Balloon Dropping set up, our station was the product scoop. We placed a small blob of blu-tac on the base to act as a target for the water balloon to drop on. A tripod was set up in front with the camera attached. The camera attached was on a manual setting of 2 second timer, ISO 100, f/5.6 with a shutter speed of 10 seconds, along with the second camera on AUTO to act as the flash to freeze time!

 

For the Fish Tank set up we had a Transparent rectangular fish tank fill 3/4 full of water. With a large piece of white card situated behind the tank we had a tripod with a camera set up on a manual setting the same as the Balloon Popping experiment although we did remove the 2 second timer as we thought it was unnecessary. The second camera used again on auto as the flash.